LAHORE, Pakistan — “How do we prevent the 5-year-old in Pakistan from becoming a radical?” U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan asked in an April interview. Imran Azhar has a ready answer: “You make him a hero. And you redefine what it is to be a hero.” Azhar is part of a small group of Pakistani […]

PORTLAND, Oregon (April 8, 2016) — Guilt by association. It’s the centerpiece of both Donald Trump’s and Ted Cruz’s policies toward Islam. And it’s something Muslims in this bastion of Pacific Northwest liberalism know a lot about. They have been struggling against innuendo, stereotyping, and mistrust since 9/11.

“We have people living in our country that want to do great harm to our country,” Trump told CBS News after the Brussels attacks. Asked whether Americans should profile their neighbors, he replied, “Everybody should watch out.”

March 17, 2004 Terrorism this week won a victory that has potentially disastrous implications for the United States in the coming months. Monday’s defeat of Spain’s Popular Party demonstrates that terrorists have the power not only to change lives, but to change governments as well. It is not the first time self-styled jihadis have sought […]

Published on Wednesday, October 8, 2003 by CommonDreams.org Once again American strategic interests in the Islamic world have been sucker-punched by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and much of the U.S. body politic remains oblivious to the fact that they are even in the fight. President Bush’s defense of Israel’s attack on Syria in the wake of […]

Published on Wednesday, October 23, 2002 by CommonDreams.org There has been much talk of the fact that the Bali bombing marked the second anniversary of the attack on the USS Cole. But the deadly blast also coincides with another milestone — one with even more significance to the current direction of U.S. foreign policy. Nineteen […]

The Washington Post, March 17, 1989 “It’s too bad about your friend,” Iran’s ambassador to Damascus nodded gravely. “He is innocent. They are all innocent as individuals. It is a very unfortunate situation.” The friend was Terry Anderson. The speaker was Ali Akhbar Mohtashami, the man U.S. intelligence claimed held the power of life and […]

The New York Times, March 16, 1988 SINCE THE MORNING of March 16, 1985, when Terry Anderson, an Associated Press correspondent, was dragged from a car in West Beirut, his whole world has been a series of damp basements and cramped rooms. His companions have been a blindfold and a chain. Fear, loneliness and doubt […]

The New York Times, March 26, 1986 (LONDON) — IT’S HARD TO FIND mention in the European and American press of what the United States is doing to free its hostages who remain in Lebanon. The Reagan administration’s “quiet diplomacy” remains quiet. The forgotten Americans remain forgotten. Somewhere in Lebanon in the last few weeks, probably […]